Headstarting is a collaborative effort between WWT, BirdsRussia and the RSPB, and occurs as part of the International Arctic Expedition mounted each year by BirdsRussia under the leadership of Dr. Evgeny Syroechkovskiy.
Siberian Rubythroat (c) Phil Palmer

The lost posts: Marooned in Meino

This post got lost in the ether between Meinypil’gyno and Slimbridge but Phil since managed to rescue it from his hard drive when he got home. Phil writes: Last weekend, the Heritage Cruise arrived with lots of friends on board. Evgeny & Lena Syroechkovsky with their close f
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First day of exploring the tundra

Richard Smith writes: I woke with the sun streaming in all the windows (there are no curtains) at 2.30am local time. It hadn’t even got dark! At 3.10 though a large flock of White-fronted Geese fly past my window and 20 minutes later a flock of Sandhill Cranes headed in the same direc
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Helicopter to Meinypil’gyno

Richard Smith writes: 3 hours sleep is all I got… Nikolay greeted us and told us we were Team Ironman from now on due to last nights mammoth performance… we have gained a little respect. I wandered out about 6ish and picked up my first Pacific golden plover and long-toed s
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Off to find the breeding grounds – 28 May 2011

28 May 2011 After breakfast we walked out with Pavel leading and everyone else following to check all the last breeding territories of Spoon-billed Sandpipers, we checked the gravel spits and ridges where a few Turnstone were seen and Dunlin heard to the low moraine hills and slopes,
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Another day, another cancelled flight – 26 May 2011

26 May 2011 Again I got up early with tightly packed bags for a chopper flight at 0900….put off to 1100……cancelled at 1200….again, sitting around waiting for the heads up and once again a big fat negative. The sun was out and we could see the mountains in the d
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Dragged out for a beer – 23 May 2011

23 May 2011 I woke up in the night feeling bad and took some medication, I spent the morning recovering from the migraine, In the late afternoon Nige and I went for a long Tundra walk, we saw a pair of Pectoral Sandpipers, 13 flew in and landed next to us with 3 and 8 seen later. Also
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Border Patrol in control – 22 May 2011

22 May 2011 I woke with a migraine, not a great start to the day, Nige and I were getting up and ready when a knock at the door revealed seven border officials. We spent much of the morning with them, they checked out our details and later we were told we could go about our business a
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Fresh fruit and veg at last – 20 May 2011

20 May 2011 We woke at around 0630, I got ready to go out, I needed a long walk to make up for the day spent inside hanging around for nothing yesterday, Nige was spending the morning working on his laptop. I got my outdoor gear on and headed out across the Tundra from the airport. On
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